Spurring reform

States making it easier for shared health care

Demand for health professionals amid the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus has led to the temporary easing of state-specific licensing requirements by the federal government and at least 10 states, including Ohio and Pennsylvania. It is a waiver state lawmakers should consider leaving in place beyond this crisis.

Ohio is working with the Federation of State Medical Boards to verify the licenses and credentials of doctors and other health care professionals needed to confront the virus. Why not use that mechanism to cut the red tape whenever a doctor or nurse wishes to move or work across state lines? State lawmakers should give their medical boards the flexibility to permit this in normal times as well.

The FSMB is offering its Physician Data Center to help states instantly verify the licensure and disciplinary history for licensed physicians and physician assistants across the country.

In Pennsylvania, the Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs has been authorized to suspend any “requirement deemed by BPOA as ‘administrative’ in nature.” After this crisis passes, states should review all of their administrative procedures to determine whether they are worth the time and expense they cause. If they can be suspended during a crisis, their value should be reassessed.

The same goes for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which has temporarily waived requirements that out-of-state medical professionals be licensed in the state in which they are providing services for these federal programs. CMS should look at the need for the restrictions it’s now easing and ask Congress for the flexibility to eliminate or reduce them as appropriate.

In an article published in Health Care Law Today, attorneys with the international law firm Foley & Lardner LLP saw such flexibility as a positive, emerging trend.

“The issuance of new or amended emergency declarations is evolving rapidly,” they said. “As more states declare a public health emergency, we can expect, or at least hope for, related waivers of barriers to care.”

State-specific licensing should not be a barrier to care, during an emergency situation or otherwise.